Be Original: Our Favorite Authentic Designs

The ELLE DECOR Be Original movement and Be Original Americas, an independent association, were formed to "educate, inform, and influence designers, businesses and the greater public on the value of purchasing authentic design." Here, some notable examples

Charles Sofa

Charles Sofa

In the 1960s, under its founder, Piero Ambrogio Busnelli, B&B Italia pioneered a high-tech approach to furniture manufacturing in Italy that included innovations like cold polyurethane foam molding for upholstery. The Charles modular sofa, designed in 1997 by Antonio Citterio, uses this technology in a clean-lined, reconfigurable design that features single-cushion seats and chaise longue end components. Charles so perfectly captured the minimalist yet comfortable feel of its time that it has spawned countless imitations.

DESIGNER: The Italian architect Antonio Citterio, who opened his own office three years before graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1975, is best known for his furniture designs, for B&B Italia as well as for clients like Axor, Hermès, and Vitra. But his architecture firm, Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners, is also known for an international list of building and interiors projects, including a new store in Paris for the French retail chain Le Printemps.

Shell Chair

Shell Chair

The Shell Chair, designed by Hans J. Wegner for Carl Hansen & Son in 1963, turned out to be somewhat ahead of its time. The chair, with its boldly-curved molded-veneer seat and three legs, proved too avant-garde for the market, and few were made. But after vintage Shell Chairs brought high prices at auction in the late 1990s, the company began producing them again, and this time they gained a wide following.

DESIGNER: Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) was one of the giants of postwar Danish design. A master carpenter who also studied architecture, Wegner loved working with wood, and was just as interested in the details and construction of a piece of furniture as he was in its form. His furniture designs, some of which were inspired by historic Chinese chairs, epitomized the organic quality of Danish modernism.